Chromonic liquid crystals and packing configurations of bacteriophage viruses
Chromonic liquid crystals and packing configurations of bacteriophage viruses
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DOI：
10.1098/rsta.2020.0111
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发表时间：
2021-07-12
期刊：
影响因子：
5
通讯作者：
Vazquez, Mariel
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Hiltner, Lindsey;Calderer, M. Carme;Vazquez, Mariel
我们研究的背景下，表征包装结构的噬菌体病毒在蛋白质衣壳的六方柱液晶的平衡配置。这些是感染细菌的病毒，目前是密集研究工作的重点，目的是为细菌耐药性抗生素找到新的疗法。我们提出的能量包括的Oseen-Frank自由能，惩罚弯曲的柱状方向，除了横截面的弹性能占扭曲的横向六方结构的液晶，我们还考虑了各向同性的贡献的核心和未知的界面之间的能量的外部有序区域的衣壳和内部无序的核心。问题变成了自由边界类型，有约束。我们表明，同心，方位角，线轴状配置是绝对极小。此外，我们提出了由DNA在自由溶液中形成的环形结构的例子，并将它们与其他类型的溶致液晶实验中发生的类似结构进行比较，如食品染料和添加剂。
We study equilibrium configurations of hexagonal columnar liquid crystals in the context of characterizing packing structures of bacteriophage viruses in a protein capsid. These are viruses that infect bacteria and are currently the focus of intense research efforts, with the goal of finding new therapies for bacteria-resistant antibiotics. The energy that we propose consists of the Oseen-Frank free energy of nematic liquid crystals that penalizes bending of the columnar directions, in addition to the cross-sectional elastic energy accounting for distortions of the transverse hexagonal structure; we also consider the isotropic contribution of the core and the energy of the unknown interface between the outer ordered region of the capsid and the inner disordered core. The problem becomes of free boundary type, with constraints. We show that the concentric, azimuthal, spool-like configuration is the absolute minimizer. Moreover, we present examples of toroidal structures formed by DNA in free solution and compare them with the analogous ones occurring in experiments with other types of lyotropic liquid crystals, such as food dyes and additives.This article is part of the theme issue 'Topics in mathematical design of complex materials'.